QB situation is deja vu for Browns' Chudzinski

Rob Chudzinski hoped he had the right quarterback the last time he went to Cincinnati in a playoff race with the Browns. He’s hoping that hope all over again six years later.

By Steve DoerschukCantonRep.com staff writer

Jason Campbell will try to lead the Browns on a surprise playoff run, but he isn’t a surprise player.

Not really. He is a former first-round draft pick. With 31 NFL victories as a starting quarterback — 12 of them within his last 21 starts — he takes a decent track record into next Sunday’s game at Cincinnati.

It was different with Rob Chudzinski’s last Cleveland quarterback to be in a playoff hunt.

Derek Anderson was a Round 7 picks of the Ravens who got cut late in his first rookie preseason, 2005. The Browns claimed him off waivers and cut Josh Booty so he could be the No. 3 quarterback behind Trent Dilfer and Charlie Frye.

Anderson didn’t see the field until late in 2006, after Frye, whose emergence soured Dilfer on Cleveland, got hurt in Game 11.

Anderson lost all three starts, the last of them a four-interception fiasco and a 22-7 home loss to Tampa Bay. His passer rating for 2006 was 63.1, below Brandon Weeden’s 66.2 for a similar amount of playing time in 2013.

Romeo Crennel was back as head coach in 2007, but with a new offensive coordinator — Chudzinski replaced Jeff Davidson.

As would become the case for Chudzinski in 2013, he had three quarterbacks to sort through.

It remains a million-dollar question whether Brady Quinn’s agent ruined him with a training camp holdout, or whether trading for the Round 1 pick needed to get Quinn was a misguided enterprise from the start.

Regardless, Quinn’s holdout erased him from a chance to beat out the shaky options elsewhere in Camp Romeo. Frye showed glimpses of hope in ‘06, beating an Oakland team Michael Lombardi had helped assemble, beating Eric Mangini’s playoff-bound Jets, and going toe to toe with Ben Roethlisberger in a 24-20 loss to Pittsburgh.

In the last game he finished, though, he threw four picks in a 30-0 home loss to Cincinnati.

Back and forth went Frye and Anderson in the 2007 preseason.

“Charlie has a leg up,” Crennel would keep saying, while camp observers struggled to see why.

One of the open questions of camp was whether Crennel was forcing Frye on Chudzinski.

The quarterback controversy became unhealthy early in the home and season opener against Pittsburgh. The Browns played as if they were a fire hydrant on which the Steelers had a leg up.

In the first half, Frye dropped back to pass 16 times. He completed four. He was sacked five times. He threw and interception. He scrambled for a yard.

It was his last stand. Anderson replaced him in the second half of a 34-7 loss, and Frye was traded to Mike Holmgren’s Seahawks two days later.

Two games against Cincinnati defined Anderson’s Browns career. In the first — the game after Frye shipped out — he turned into Otto Graham, throwing five touchdown passes in a 51-45 win.

In the second, at Cincinnati with a chance to clinch a playoff berth, he threw four interceptions in a 19-14 loss.

The Browns missed the playoffs with a 10-6 record that was a mirage. Anderson went to the Pro Bowl as an injury replacement and was a fish out of water, going 10-of-26 with the all-stars.

He was benched after eight games in 2008, after which Crennel was fired and Chudzinski left for San Diego.

Anderson became convinced Cleveland hated him. That wasn’t quite right, but the loss at Cincinnati was a two-ton downer.

All Browns fans wanted was a real quarterback.

See for yourself how popular Campbell will be if he pulls the 2013 team to 5-5 with a win at Cincinnati.

Meanwhile, “D.A.” still is ticking. Anderson has turned into Carolina’s “closer” in his third year with the Panthers. He has played twice this season, taking two snaps in “victory formation” in a 38-0 win over the Giants and a 34-10 win over the Falcons.

Before Campbell posted back-to-back passer ratings greater than 100 in the last two games, Anderson was the last Brown to do it in 2007.

It is hard to believe six years have passed, and the Browns are still looking for the right quarterback.

Browns fans would love to believe they have a good one going at Cincinnati, and beyond.